AJMER: NOT A THRIVING MARKET

Wrapped in

the picturesque range of Aravali mountains, Ajmer has an integrated

rich cultural heritage. Being famous for its Dargah Sharif, Tomb of

Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, the city is also a base for

visiting Pushkar, the abode of Lord Brahma. Ajmer is not just famous

for its Dargah, but it is also known for its well- cclaimed Mayo

College, and its proximity to Pushkar Lake. Due to the presence of

various educational institutions, the city has a large population of

students. Besides, it is a trade center for manufactured goods

including cotton, wool textiles, leather, hosiery, shoes, soap, and

pharmaceuticals.

When it

comes

to the IT industry of Ajmer, it is not a very prosperous market. In

the last 6 months, it hasn't registered any promising growth,

except during festive season, when it saw a good sale. Moreover, this

time there were no festive schemes introduced by vendors, because of

which most of the channel partners introduced their own schemes to

lure customers. “Customers always wait for festival season for

purchasing. This Diwali, we brought out our own schemes to infl uence

customers, as there were no schemes introduced by vendors,” said

Amit Sharma of KK Softmart. The city is driven by 35-odd channel

partners, who register an annual revenue of around Rs 35 crore. Owing

to the lack of industrial and corporate segments, the city's main

business verticals are education and home segments.

The large

student population usually buy HP, Compaq, Sony and Dell laptops,

while all-in-ones are too in a demand. Ajmer has no active IT

association present in the city, because of which all channel

partners have to solve their problems and issues on their own. “As

we don't have any association in the city, we usually resolve our

issues with vendors by conducting discussions. We want to have a

trade governing body in the city that can take us forward,” said

Shalabh Kumar Agarwal of Symbiosis Computer Visions.

Since, Ajmer

is not a big business hub for IT products, its issues usually goes

unnoticed. For instance, vendors do not provide any specifi c

policies regarding DoA and are lacking on service support. Timely

delivery of products has always been a big concern for city partners,

but the lack of co-operation from vendors has done nothing good for

them. “There are irrational policies meted out to partners and

there are no structured policies in Ajmer that can give a rise to our

business,” said Agarwal. There are some service centers of HP and

LG in the city, but then it doesn't meet the requirements of city's

dealers, for which they have to travel to Jaipur.